2020 Annual Report: A Message From Our President & CEO
Daniel J. Loepp
| 3 min read
Daniel J. Loepp is President and Chief Executive Off...
In 2020, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan took extraordinary steps to maintain the strength of the health care ecosystem during the pandemic. At the same time, we reinforced our commitment to increasing access to quality, affordable health care and improving the health of citizens and communities. We’ve been a trusted partner to the people of Michigan for 82 years, and we’re working harder than ever to provide protection and peace of mind. The backbone of our response to the global crisis is an unprecedented commitment of $1.3 billion to ensure access and support for members, customers, providers and communities. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan’s comprehensive response during the pandemic was possible because of the strong foundation of our business. We are the nation’s third largest Blue plan with more than 5 million members residing in all 50 states. As a nonprofit mutual insurance company, we are focused on the needs of our members, not meeting short-term expectations of shareholders. To protect our members, we invested $600 million to waive COVID-related testing and treatment costs and returned $21 million in premium credits to individual market members when health care claims were lower than expected at the outset of the pandemic. We returned $100 million to many fully insured customers to give them financial flexibility and enhanced our communications with additional resources, toolkits, webinars and in-depth data for employers, group customers and agents. We supported our provider partners by stabilizing and maintaining cash flow, collaborating with dozens of hospitals to share clinical data for COVID-19 treatment and helping enable the rapid major expansion of telehealth use. This ensured our physicians and hospitals could maintain operational sustainability in a dynamic environment. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan is guided by our social mission, to improve the health of Michigan’s citizens and communities. Our outreach in 2020 included supporting efforts to decrease health disparities, implementing free COVID-19 mobile testing clinics for neighborhoods in need, addressing food insecurity for families, and forming alliances to make mental health care more accessible. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan’s comprehensive response during the pandemic was possible because the foundation of our business is strong. We are the nation’s third largest Blue plan with 5.34 million members residing in all 50 states. As a nonprofit mutual insurance company, we are focused on the needs of our members, not meeting short-term expectations of shareholders. Our employees quickly shifted operations to address the evolving needs of the pandemic so that we could maintain the service that members and customers have come to expect from us. We processed an average of $71 million/day in payments of claims and benefits to doctors, hospitals, pharmacies and other providers of care, and calls from our members have never stopped being answered. Our 2020 Annual Report demonstrates how Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan continues to innovate and evolve to improve health care and reliably meet the needs of our members and the community — no matter what comes next. Read the full 2020 Annual Report
